3 Tips to Manage Your Public Speaking Anxiety
I am going to share with you the tips that saved my life whenever I feel nervous during my speaking gig.
- Rehearse.
If you are self-conscious about not knowing how to present or if you feel self-conscious about your speech due to lack of experience, you should rehearse your speech at least 3 times or until you are comfortable and confident with it.
Actually, even as an experienced speaker, you should still rehearse your presentation because rehearsing should be part of your preparation.
It is also important to note that you should rehearse your presentation out loud and not just in your head. It makes a huge difference. This way you can have a feel for how you are going to sound that day, strengthen your voice and build your assurance. Most importantly, you can properly time yourself because many of the speaking gig or presentation session has a time limit. By properly time yourself, you can make sure you stick to the time limit given.
If you want to be better, you can also rehearse your presentation with friends or family members who can give constructive criticism or appraisal. The one that you know will be honest with you.
Apart from that, I think it also important to rehearse with all the tools that you will use during your presentation such as your PowerPoint (or any props that you will bring with you that day).
To take it up a notch, rehearse your presentation with the outfit you plan to wear that day.
Honestly? Go all out with your rehearsal and preparation.
If you ask me? Better to be over-prepare than under prepare.
2. Go to the venue early.
I will personally swear on this tip.
I really do this.
Every time.
I have been speaking publicly either on the international stage or in my home country, Malaysia for more than 10 years now. Every time I have a speaking gig, you can bet that I will try my best to go to the venue as early as possible.
How early?
Usually, I will ask the organiser if I can go and check the venue the day or the night before my presentation day. If that is not possible, I will make sure to get to the venue before the crowd arrives. Like there was once, I was at the venue when the hall was still dark and no one was there yet. I was the first one there.
This way I have the time to check out how the venue looks like, test my equipment, test their equipment, and organised myself a bit.
The truth is, human always fears the unknown.
For me personally, not knowing what to expect during my presentation day will add more anxiety to myself.
Going to the venue early eliminate exactly that!
The unknown part.
If you go to the venue early, you will have to chance to familiarise yourself with the surrounding. You now already know how to venue looks like, where your audience going to sit, how are you going to position yourself and most importantly, you know that all the equipment works and your presentation will 99% go smoothly.
Isn’t that fabulous?
3. Don’t make that presentation about you.
When I first started speaking in public, especially when I was in my 20s, I desperately want people to like me.
Me.
Not my presentation.
Not my content.
Not the knowledge that I want to impart from myself and deliver to them.
I make it all about me.
From “Will they like me?” to trivial things like, “Does my make-up look on point today?”
I miss the point of my presentation completely when I make my presentation about myself. To make thing worse, because I was self-absorbed like that, I have managed to make myself 10 times more nervous for nothing.
Not until years later, I found this secret little ingredient to reduce my public speaking anxiety by more than half.
Frankly? I will always get a little nervous before my public speaking gig. Nervous means I care about my presentation and I want to give my best. So, I am okay with it.
But I know better now. My presentation will always be about what I want to share with the audience. It will focus on what are the key takeaways that I want my audience to bring home with them.
I no longer make my presentation about me.
I make my presentation about them.
If you feel super nervous and aware that one of the problems is because you feel the desperate need for the audience to like you, you should try this tip.
Stop worrying whether your dress makes you look fat or not. You look fine.
Make your presentation truly about your audience and watch your extreme anxiety dissipates and you can breathe normally again.
On that note, I wish all of you the best of luck.
You got this!
Nurul Ashiqin is the Founder of Clue to the Zoo — an EduTech StartUp focusing in preparing Young Graduates and Young Professionals for working life.
Check out www.cluetothezoo.com/workshop for all the available Livestreams you can join to get ahead in your career. Sign up today.
